MASTER 
NEGA  TIVE 

NO.  91-80416 


MICROFILMED  1992 
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AUTHOR: 


LEEDS,  JOSIAH  W 


TITLE: 


CONCERNING 

PRINTED  POISON 


PLACE: 


PHILADELPHIA 


DA  TE : 


1885 


Restrictions  on  Use: 


COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARIES 
PRESERVATION  DEPARTMENT 

BIBLIOGRAPHIC  MICROFORM  TARGET 


Master  Negative  # 


Original  Material  as  Filmed  -  Existing  Bibliographic  Record 


r 


176  .8 
Z 
V.  1 


LeedSj  Josiah  Woodward 

Concerning  printed  poison. 

The  author,  1885. 
42  p^   18cni. 


Philadelphia, 


Another  copy  in  Graphic  Arts.  1885. 


1«  Journalism  -  Addresses,  essays,  lectures. 
Zm   Literature,  Immoral. 


TECHNICAL  MICROFORM  DATA 


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'UBJ 


RLMEDBY:    RESEARCH  PUBLICATIONS,  INC  WOODBRIDGE,  CT 


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1100  Wayne  Avenue,  Suite  1100 
Silver  Spring.  Maryland  20910 

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CONCERNING 


Printed  Poisok 


HY 


JOSIAH    W.    LEEDS 


EIGHTH    THOUSAND. 


PHILADELPHIA: 
No.    328    \A^ALNUT    STREET. 

PuBLlSHnO   FOR  THE   AUTHOK. 
IS85. 


Concerning  Printed  Poison, 

Page  5 

Of  Local  Happening, 

"    23 

The  Pbrnuious  in  Libkariks, 

"    36 

1 

Concluding  Remark, 

"    41 

MEMORANDl  M. 


A  considerable  part  of  the  little  Essay  which  follows,  appeare<l 
the  first  day  of  the  present  year  in  the  Public  Ledger,  of  thi> 
city.  The  subject  of  which  it  treats  has  become  a  somewhat 
prominent  one  at  this  time,  and,  in  the  belief  that  the  views 
herein  presented  may  be  both  suggestive  and  helpful  to  not  a 
few  in  other  communities,  this  pamphlet  edition  of  the  expanded 
article  (with  some  other  matter  appended),  has  now  been  printed. 
It  is  commended  to  the  serious  consideration  of  the  editors,  pub- 
lishers, librarians,  and  others  into  whose  hands  it  mav  come. 

In  undertaking  to  lay  the  responsibility  for  the  prevalence  and 
continuous  increase  of  the  "printed  poison"  evil  where  it  rightly 
belongs,  a  care  has  been  exercised  not  to  so  far  rest  the  blame  on 
the  shoulders  of  the  purveyors  of  demoralizing  prints  and  of 
pernicious  literature  generally,  as  to  excuse  the  indifference  or 
negligence  of  very  many  parents  respecting  the  character  of  the 
reading  matter  which  falls  into  the  hands  of  their  offspring. 
Neither,  whilst  referring  to  the  laxity  frequently  shown  by  officers 
of  the  law  concerning  pictured  indecency,  has  the  writer  condoned 
the  supineness  of  so  many  professing  Christians  in  never  letting 
it  appear  in  their  daily  walk  that  they  have  any  convictions  upon 
the  subject  that  are  worth  the  trouble  of  upholding.  Respecting 
how  best  to  deal  with,  and  how  far  to  tolerate,  the  liquor-drinking 
habit,  there  may  be  much  honest  difference  of  opinion,  but,  that 
public  decency  is  a  valuable  possession  to  be  maintained  with  all 


IV 


MEMORANDUM. 


vigilance,  ought  surely  to  be  affiru.ed  by  every  one  of  ordinary 
,„„ntl  ,liscernn,ent-whatever  hi.s  eolor,  nationality  or  p«l.lK«,  In-' 

ethicvil  views  or  religious  belief. 

It  scarcelv  need  be  added,  however,  that  it  will  be  of  little  avail 
to  po8ses.s  a  right  apprehension  of  the  truth  in  this  nuttter,  it  we 
never,  iis  oceasions  arise,  express  and  nmintain  it,  or,  it  we  are 
fearful  as  to  what  our  outspoken  testimony  is  likely  to  eost  us. 
The  president  of  a  certain  corporation,  upon  l>eing  re<,nested  to 
prohibit  the  sale  of  a  paper  of  a  confessedly  scandalous  character, 
replied,  that  although  "heartily  concurring  with  any  principle 
which  woul.l  correct  the  morals  of  our  community,  yet  in  our 
business  we  cannot  attbrd  the  ill  will  of  any  one,  more  especially 
newspapers."     The  argument,  or,   rather,   the   line  of  pleading, 
thus  expres.txi,  is  doubtless  a  prevalent  one.     Nevertheless,  I  lail 
to  perceive  how  we  can  be  true  to  the  Master  wh.«e  name  we  take, 
ur  lay  claim  to  that  Christian  manliness  which  ought  to  be  ours, 
or  ever  cast  away  the   abomination   of  demoralizing   literature 
which  is  in  our  midst  and  all  around  us.  if  we  are  concerned  to 
place  ourselves  upon  no  higher  i>lane  than  this. 

Philadelphia,  Second  Monlli  tilth,  IDSo. 


CONCERNING  PRINTED  POISON. 


There  is  a  wise  law  of  this  State— though  it  is  a  law 
whieh  I  am  sorry  to  say  is  very  much  set  at  naught— 
which  provides  that  the  convicts  in  our  peniU^ntiaries  shall 
l)e  confined  in  separate  cells.  When  visiting  the  peniten- 
tiarv  in  this  city  several  years  ago,  I  remember  to  have 
seen  in  a  certain  cell  a  middle-aged  man  and  a  fair-haired 
youth.  The  former  was  teaching  the  latter— if  I  remem- 
ber aright— the  art  of  basket  making,  yet  at  the  same  time 
he  so  rallied  the  lad  in  the  language  of  recklessness  and 
bravad(»,  that  it  was  easy  to  believe  the  boy  would  acquire 
much  more  of  harmful  knowledge  than  of  that  which  would 

be  helpful. 

Now,  all  the  educaticm  in  crime  which  a  boy  or  girl 
might  get  from  old  and  hardened  law-breakers  within  a 
prison  Tell,  may  be  freely  obtained  at  hundreds  of  the  news 
stands— the  great  majority  of  them,  in  fact— whi<-h  are  to 
be  found  upon  our  city  sidewalks.  "  In  the  old  story 
books/'  said  a  writer,  quoted  in  the  Ledger,  perhaps  two 
years  ago,  "it  was  assumed  that  truthful- 
ness, honesty  and  obedience  to  parents 
were  virtues,  and  that  the  Christian  religion  was  not  wholly 
devoid  of  merit,"  but,  in  "the  dime  and  half-dime  novels 
of  the  criminal  school,  which  are  now  read  by  all  (?)  our 
boys  cither  openly  or  secretly,  the  pleasures  of  burglary 


The  old  reading  and 
the  new. 


and  highway  robbery,  the  manliness  of  gambling  and  fight- 
intr,  and  the  heroism  of  successful  lying  are  set  forth  in 
what  is  regarded  by  youthful  readers  as  glowing  eloquence, 
while  the  great  truths  that  all  parents  are  tyrants,  that  all 
religious  people  are  hypocrites,  and  that  disobedience  to 
fathers  and  teachers  is  obedience  to  the  nobler  instincts  of 
juvenile  nature,  are  sedulously  taught." 

A  notable  effect  of  indulgence  in  literature  of  this  de- 
scription, is  to  indispose  the  youthful  mind  to  any  reading 
which  is  not  of  the  like  pernicious  quality.  For  instance, 
the  librarian  of  the  Friends'  Free  Library,  at  Germantown, 
had  a  call  not  long  ago  from  a  fellow-librarian,  who,  hav- 
ing queried  what  method  could  be  adopte<l  for  inducing  the 
young  to  make  choice  of  improving,  or  at  least  not  harm- 
fully-entertaining books,  gave  the  follow- 
ing as  illustrating  the  drift  toward  the 
simply  sensational :  He  had  assisted  a  lad  to  select  a  l>ook, 
by  recommending  for  his  perusal  a  well-written  work  upon 
a  very  interesting  and  stirring  |)eri<xl  of  English  history. 
The  boy,  however,  (piickly  brought  back  the  book,  at  the 
same  time  taking  care  to  let  his  adviser  know  that  he  felt 
he  had  been  imposed  upon.  He  would  like  him  to  under- 
stand that  he  had  no  notion  of  giving  up  his  time  to  a 
course  of  dull  reading  like  that! 

There  can  be  no  mistaking  the  direct  ag;ency  of  the  cheap 
and  trashy  reading  matter  of  the  day,  taken  in  connection 
with  variety  theatre  visitation,  in  turning  out  juvenile  mis- 
demeanants and  well  develoi)ed  criminals,  and  that  by  the 
wholesale.     Upon  three  lads  arrested  for  highway  robbery 


The  drift  toward  the 
simply  sensational. 


Flash  literature  and 
juvenile  iaw-brealcers 


in  Schuylkill  county,  this  State,  there  were  found  four  re- 
volvers, a  number  of  photographs  of  actresses,  and  several 
dime  novels.     In  one  of  our  Philadelphia  public  schools, 
seven  pistols  were  found  in  the  possession  of  as  many  lads, 
whilst  their  sto(;k  of  literature  was  made  up  of  considerably 
over   one    hundred  pernicious   publications.     The  public 
w^ere  some  months  ago  made  acquainted  with  a  Buffalo  Bill 
organization  among  the  lads  of  Milwaukee,  a  revelation 
which  was  stated  to  have  alarmed  the  whole  town  and  ne- 
(5essitated  an  increase  of  the  police  force.    And  only  yester- 
day eame  a  telegram  from  Reading,  telling  of  the  arrest  of 
several  little  law-breakers  eight  to  ten  years  of  age,  and 
the  further  discovery  of  a  gang  of  thir- 
teen who  had  been  systematically  robbing 
stores,  factories  and  dwellings.     On  the  east  side  of  the 
city  of  New  York  similar  bands  of  youthful  desperadoes 
are  a  constant  menace  to  the  holders  of  movable  property 
within  the  circuit  of  their  depredations.     The  current  Re- 
port of  the  Penna.  Society  to  Protect  Children  from  Cru- 
elty, referring  to  the  evil  effect  of  "  flash"  literature  upon 
the  young,  says,  that  "  the  officers  of  the  Society,  in  the 
prosecution  of  their  work,  have  frequent  occasion  to  notice 
the  dreadful  and  pernicious  influence  of  the  cheap  novels 
which  abound  in  our  midst." 

In  Paris  there  must  have  been  a  rather  uneasy  state  of 
affairs  recently  to  have  prompted  the  sending  of  an  ocean 
telegram  telling  of  a  suddenly  developed  and  alarming  in- 
crease of  crime  on  the  part  of  juvenile  thieves,  and  the 
calling  out  of  extra  patrols  of  night  policemen.     But  in 


8 


parsing  it  mav  be  sairt  here,  as  was  stated  l.y  the  Lmmj 
Church,  m  alluding  to  the  remark."  of  a  speaker  at  the 
English  Conference  on  Public  Morality,  "the  worst  litera- 
ture for  boys  sold  in  England  consisted  of  reprints  ol 
\raerican  stories  and  of  magazines  imported  from  America. 
If  we  did  our  duty  on  this  side  of  the  water,  these  maga- 
zines at  lea.«t  would  be  suppres.sed." 

The  foregoing  remarks  have  referen(«  to  that  cliuss  ol 
rcadino-  maUer  which,  though  exceedingly  pernicious,  and 
presenting  altogether  false  views  of  life,  is  not  necessarily 
tiltln>  Of  the  latter  character  (in  part)  arc  the  weeklu> 
mainlv  devoted  to  police  news,  and  an  occasional  daily 
which  docs  not  stick  at  the  surrender  of  decency,  and,  in- 
deetl  of  every  moral  principle,  so  it  may  ad.l  to  its  unhal- 
lowed -rains.'  Said  the  San  Francisco  amnicle  some 
months" ago:  "The  publication  of  a  sensational  story 
paper  which  is  equivalent  to  a  liberal  e<lucation  in  crime, 
swms'to  Ik-  verv  remunerative.     One  of  the  proprietors  ot 

"a  notorious  weekly  journal  of  this  stamp 

died  last  week,  leaving  an  i-state  which  is 

valued  at  igljSOO.DOO.     It  would  be  in- 

tcrestino-  to  know  how  many  criminals  now  serving  out 

sentenc^,  owe  their  first  impulse  to  evil  to  this  journal." 

ITndoubtedlv  there  is  such  a  thing  as  courtesy  of  the 

press,  to  be  observed  in  a  most  liberal  and  generous  si)int 

Itetween  fellow  publishers,  but  when  any  one  of  the  latter 

deliberately  issues  that  which  is  vile  and  unclean,  it  is  pro- 

,x^r  that  c^)mplaisance  and  brotherly  courtesy  should  give 

place  to  dt>served  rebuke.     How  do  we  look  at  this  thing 


Manufacturing  cri- 
minals a  paying  busi- 
ness. 


9 


)' 


Where  editorial  cour' 
tesy  should  give  way 
to  censure. 


in  an  indivichial  aspect?  "  An  impure  man,  young  or  old, 
poisoning  society  where  he  moves  with  his  smutty  stories 
and  impure  example,  is  a  moral  ulcer,  a  plague  spot,  a 
leper,  who  ought  to  be  treated  as  were  the  lepers  of  old, 
who  were  banished  from  society  and  commanded  to  cry 
^  Unclean,'  as  a  warning  to  save  others  from  the  pestilence. 
Now  if  this  judgment  holds  good  for  a 
single'  person,  who  in  his  ordinary  daily 
walk  may  ])oison  or  impurely  affect  the 
minds  of  fifty  others,  what  is  to  be  said  of  the  paper — 
or,  rather,  the  publisher  of  a  paper — who  daily  sends  out 
an  edition  of  (we  will  say)  fifty  or  one  hundred  thousand 
copies  of  a  sheet  tilled  with  all  the  passing  scandal  and  vile- 
ness  that  he  can  rake  together?  Possessed  with,  and  ex- 
ercising, a  power  of  contamination  a  thousand  fold  greater 
than  the  first,  is  not  such  a  "  moral  ulcer'*  or  **  plague 
spot"  to  be  far  more  dreaded  in  our  midst  than  would  have 
been  those  miserable  Mongolian  lepers  whose  rumored 
coming  some  six  months  ago  so  roused  our  health  authori- 
ties into  unwonted  activity  ?* 

Having  occasion  to  purchase,  for  the  j)urposes  of  evidence, 
a  few  publications  of  the  aforesaid  character  at  several 
stands,  the  keeper  of  one  of  the  latter  said,  when  I  spoke 
of  the  demoralizing  character  of  the  paper  handed  me: 
*'  Yes,  but  we  sell  a  great  many  of  them."  Another  re- 
plied, defiantly  :  "  People  buy  them  eagerly,  sir."    A  third : 

*  The  writer  believes  it  proper  to  state,  that  the  foregoing  para- 
graph is  one  of  those  which  did  not  appear  in  the  Ledger  article  as 
originally  printcHl. 


10 

« I  sell  more  of  them  than  any  other,  but  it's  a  very  irn- 
moril  paper."  Notice  that  woll-dri^scd  lad  in  the  train, 
how  he  draws  himself  apart  from  the  passenger  on  the  seat 
beside  him,  lest  the  debasing  page  which  he  reads  should 
be  scanned  by  other  eyes.  Here  is  an  errand  boy  l.nger- 
in<r  alon^,  absorbed  in  a  flash  narrative  whi.h  he  has  folde<l 
four-square,  that  it  may  be  quickly  withdrawn  from  or  re- 
„lace«l  in  his  pocket.     There,  at  the  eutrances  of  the  open 

squares  in  the  heart  of  the  city,  or  upon 
so»e%'of  tr«r         ti,e  great  avenues  of  travel,  may  be  seen 
at  dusk,  when  crowds  of  artisans,  mechanic*,  clerks  and 
shop-girls  are  going  to  their  homes,  the  givers  away  of 
these  pernicious  and  sensational  story  lepers.     Not  so  late 
in  the  day,  when  the  single-session  schools  have  dismissed, 
and  at  the  time  when  market  people  are  returning  across 
the  river,   you  may   perchance   see  these  same   generous 
distributors  at  the  Camden  ferries,  bestowing  the  pa^H-rs 
upon  those  whom  they  expect  to  become  their  good  cus- 
tomers of  the  future.     Women  biusy  with  their  household 
cares  and  men  with  their  menhandising,  may  be  oblivious 
of  these  things,  yet  it  is  nevertheless  true  that  the  rec-ept.ve 
minds  of  the  youtli  of  this  day  are  being  deeply  sown  with 
the  tares  of  trashy  and  immoral  reading  matter,  so  that  the 
effect  must  become  evident  in  the  lowering  of  the  moral 
tone  of  the  community  at  large,  and  its  tolerance  of  forms 
of  evil  which  would  not  have  been  endured  by  the  genera- 
tion prece<ling.  , 

In  undertaking  to  define  what  is  pernicious  in  literature, 
and,  in  addition  to  that,  what  is  so  unmistakably  pernicious 


11 


Defining  the  perni- 
cious in  literature. 


as  to  be  fairly  liable  to  legal  inhibition,  every  one  will  be 
prepared  to  admit— with  Postmaster  Huidekoper  of  this 
city— that  it  is  "difficult  to  draw  the  line,  which  [never- 
theless] I  concede  should  be  drawn  somewhere/' 

As  to  papers  of  an  obviously  debasing  character,  such  ai» 
are  those  of  the  police  news  stamp,  the  representative  of 
the  News  Dealers'  Association  lately  said 
to  the  writer,  that  he  did  not  suppose  he 
could  find  a  dealer  anywhere  who  would  be  willing  to 
stand  up  before  a  Councirs  Committee  and  plead  ibr  a 
continuance  of  those  publications.  And  yet,  notwithstand- 
ing such  prints  as  those  named  are  thus  by  common  con- 
sent condemned  as  absolutely  i)ernicious,  we  will  probably 
find,  singularly  enough,  nearly  as  many  apologists  for  the 
sale  of  them  as  there  are  dealers.  The  pleas  offered  in  ex- 
tenuation of  this  inconsistency  are  :  (1)  That  the  dealers 
simply  aim  to  accommodate  those  of  their  patrons  who  ask 
for  the  corrupting  papers,  and  (2),  that  he  dealers'  wives 
and  children  must  not  be  allowed  to  starve. 

To  tht3  latter  sentiment  I  object  (as  one  not  indifferent  to 
(considerations  of  humanity),  that  the  material  welfare  of 
several  hundred  dealers'  families  is  thus  made  to  appear  of 
more  moment  than  the  moral  well-being  of  the  remaining 
one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  families  resident  in  the 
city,  and  liable  to  be  affected  by  the  demoralizing  literature. 
Further,  I  believe  that  no  true  woman  would  consent  to 
be  supported  by  a  traffic  which  she  must  certainly  know— 
if  she  has  really  given  serious  thought  to  the  subject— is 
working  desolation  in  (we  will  say)  the  hundred  homes  of 


12 

t,ose  of  her  husband^s  patrons  who  take  tl-^^^-^j^ 
paiHTS      Similarly  degrading  is  the  excuse  Mx  urn  e 
X  io  shift  th;  res;onsil>ility  upon  those  who  see  fit  to 
afkl    the  paper..     Now,  it  must  be  an  unhealthdy  and 

morbidly  exeited,  or  a  deprayed,  mind, 
Je&r^^'*"'     which  will  allow  itself  to  waste  precious 
time  in  the  deliberate  perusal   of  a  low   paper  like  the 
Zee  Galeae.     But,  a  ^^  patron'^  asks  for  the  poison,  and 
I  is  unhesitatingly  handed  him   by  one  who  yery  w^ 
knows  it  is  unfit  to  be  issued   and  who  wd    not  ha  ej^h. 
hardihood  to  stand   up  and  formally  defend  it      It  may 
trnee  with  pertinency  be  asked,  whether  the  d^ders  would 
^:i  letter  establish  the  sincerity  of  their  -know  e^ged 
eonyictions  hereupon,  if,  as  a  body,  they  would  author  it  - 
ively  condemn  and  refuse  to  handle  eyery  PaF-f Jk 
Character.    This  position,  I  think,  ..s  the  one  rig  i  ly^a^^^^^ 
by  the  newsdealers  of  the  town  of  Newburyport,  Mass., 

"X  r  S3:„'  defen.  n...v  I«  .dW  >W  »«....■ 
Of  those  who,  while  opposed  to  the  cUssen.nat.on^^^^^^^^^^ 
nicious  literature,  are  solicitous  lest,  by  calling  attention  to 
r"  biect,  a  morbid  interest  should  be  excited  therein  an 
S  P    m;re  harm  result  than  good.     If  sensational  and 
otherwise  injudicious  methods  be  resorted  to  for  the  accon  - 
Xient  of  the  object  aimed  at,  then  the  wnter  co^^^^^^^^^^^ 
himself  as  holding  the  like  view  respecting  any  ag^t^n  o^" 
the  eyil ;  but,  if  endeavors  to  overcome  this  iniquity  be 
und       ken  in  the  fear  of  the  Lord,  and  with  a  pure  de. re 
to  save  the  souls  of  one's  fellows,  then  I  apprehend  that 


13 


the  accountability  for  any  mischief  incidentally  arising  from 
the  publicity  thus  given  will  be  very  properly  chargeable 
upon  the  "  workers  of  iniquity,"  the  originators  and  pro- 
moters of  the  mischief. 

As  to  the  other  class  of  pernicious  literature — the  dime 
and  the  half-dime  novels,  the  sensational  story  papers, 
filled  with  talk  of  detectives,  and  the  criminal  exploits  of 
cow-boys,  and  the  like — these,  though  not  usually  indecent, 
are,  as  has  been  said  before,  unmistakably  demoi-alizing  in 
the  strongest  sense.  Few  people,  perhaps,  realize  to  what 
an  extent  the  issue  of  these  publications  increases  year  by 
year,  or  have  any  conception  of  the  sum  of  the  mischief 
that  they  surely  inflict.  When,  about  eight  years  ago, 
J.  T.  Fields,  in  a  lecture  delivered  at  Boston,  referred  to  an 
interview  he  had  had  with  the  boy-murderer,  Pomeroy, 
in  whieh  the  latter  spoke  of  his  vicious  career  as  being  largely 
due  to  the  influence  of  the  many  sensational  stories  of  adven- 
ture and  violence  he  had  read,  the  account  was  sent  all  over 
the  country,  |)roducing  a  marked  sensation.  To-day,  how- 
ever, such  recitals  are  of  so  common  occurrence  as  scarcely  t<» 
excite  remark.  It  was  not  many  months  ago  that  there 
appeared  'the  statement,  given  on  the  au- 
thority of  the  chaplain  of  the  Indiana 
State  Prison,  that  of  the  120  convicts 
lately  in  the  prison  enclosure,  76  per  cent,  attributed  their 
downfall  in  great  measure  to  the  corrupting  influence  of 
the  vile  and  otherwise  pernicious  literature  which  they  had 
read. 

In  "  drawing  the  line,"  therefore,  ought  not  such  publi- 


Flash  story  papers 
morally  and  legally 
condemned. 


14 


cations  as  the  foregoing,  to  be  subject  to  exclusion  .     Tim 
is  the  view  taken  by  some  of  the  railroad  corpora Uons,  one 
of  the  largest  and  best  regulated  of  wh.ch,  dehn.ng  the 
»  pernicious"  which  it  will  not  pern.it  on  its  trains,  says  : 
"Se  prohibition  covers  not  merely  what  is  indecent  or 
obscene,  but  also  all  that  class  of  trashy,  Hcnsatwua  htera-^ 
tare  which  has  wrecked  the  happiness  of  so  many  homes^ 
But  further,  according  to  the  Chicago  Inerocean  (18b-) 
"The  Supreme  Court  has  de<-ided  that  '  the  liberty  ot  the 
press'  guaranteed  by  the  Constitution,  was  not  intended  to 
■1£  the  publication  of  articles  injurious  to  the  morals 
o"  the  public,  or  advertisements  of  an  immoral  character. 
This  dedsion  was  upon  one  of  the  Anthony  Comstock  cases, 
and  it  practically  justifies  the  movement  for  the  suppression 
of  demoralizing  a.s  well  as  otecene  literature 

Z  Chief  Justice  Story,  adverting  to  the  (first)  constitu- 
tioral  amendment,  guaranteeing  the  liberty  ot  the  press 

declares :  "  To  admit  that  this  amendment 
was  intended  to  secure  to  every  citizen  an 
absolute  right  to  s^ak,  or  write,  or  print 
whatever  he  might  please,  without  any  !-7"'-';'\>f  .;^';'';; 
for  is  a  supposition  too  wild  to  be  indulged  ...  by  an> 
rea'sonable  nlan."  With  which  agr^th  the  dictum  ot  Jus- 
tice  Blackstone,  that,  a.s  "  A  man  may  l)e  allowed  t.  ke  p 
,K>isons  in  his  closet,  but  not  publicly  to  vend  them  a.,  cor- 
E^«so  true  will  it  be  found,  that  to  censure  licen- 
tiousness is  to  maintain  ihe  liberty  of  the  press^^ 

:;:^;;;;;;;r5i;^;;i;:^^5  of  the"America„  BaiUvay  LUcrcry  Union 
and  Pure  Literature  Bnreau,  pp.  14  and  20. 


Suppressing  the  per- 
nicious Is  not  ■;  mui- 
iling  the  press. 


• 


15 


While  it  may  not  be  that  this  city  of  Penn  is  destined  to 
reach  the  low  moral  plane  of  the  Niimidian  city  of  Sicca 
Veneria,  or  of  ancient  Antioch  in  the  days  of  its  luxury 
and  infamy,  yet  the  tendency  since  (and  as  a  legacy  of)  the 
civil  war,  has  been  downward,  rather  than  the  reverse. 
Hence,  though  there  is  obvious  need  of  a  more  diligent  exe- 
cution of  the  laws  against  vice  and  immorality,  there  is  not 
less  a  call  to  more  faithfulness  on  the  part  of  citizens  indi- 
vidually as  stimulating  thereto.  When  those  charged 
with  the  execution  of  the  laws  are  conscious  that,  as  touch- 
ing matters  pertaining  to  public  morals,  the  community  at 
large  donH  care,  the  officers  also  will,  almost  surely,  be  cor- 
respondingly indifferent.  To  illustrate  :  The  writer  of  this, 
not  many  weeks  ago,  observing  a  policeman  gazing  with  a 
good  deal  of  apparent  interest  at  a  large  and  decidedly  in- 
decent show  bill  across  the  street,  asked  him  whether  he 
thought  the  law  permitted  an  exposure  of  that  character. 
He  remarked  in  reply  that  he  was  "just  wondering  whether 
it  wasn't  'most  too  bad,"  yet  did  not  offer  to  do  anything 
in  the  way  of  relief.  In  a  second  case  an  appeal  to  a  simi- 
lar po.st«r-struck  officer  elicited  the  response  that  the  Dis- 
trict Lieutenant  had  better  be  spoken  to.  He  did  not  pro- 
pose to  do  anything  himself  In  a  third 
instance,  where  complaint  was  made  to  a 
Lieutenant,  no  result  followed;  so  that,  though  these  and 
other  debasins:  show  bills  were  eventuallv  removed  by  the 
Mayor,  such  action  was  only  effected  through  the  personal 
attention  of  the  citizen,  and  not  of  the  officer  charged  with 
and  paid  to  attend  to  the  duty. 


Indecent  posters  and 
apathetic  patrolmen. 


16 

While  .peaking  of  this  phase- of  my  subject  it  may  be 
pelent  tl  quote  from  a  late  l-P-^vh.eh   retenjng^o  a 

Lnt  removal  of  some  immoral  V^^^^^^Z^ 
the  citv  of  Richmond,  remarks:      ihere  arc  lew 

^pttions  to  vice  and  immorality  than  ^"^"^^^^ 
Ld  to  have  such  thrown  in  our  eyes  as  we  walk  the  streets 
?s  an  oXe.     '  Citizen'  tells  ns  that  our  Mayor  ordered 
ome  sSo  be  destroyed  when  his  attention  was  cal  e.1  to 
Tm      But  why  was  it  accessary  that  the  Mayor  should 
tv"  his  attention  calle.1  to  a  matter  that  he  had  the  same 
ves  to  -e  that  other  citizens  hadV     It  is  the  duty  ot  our 
civU  officers  to  attend  to  all  matters  of  public  decency  w.th- 
out  hav^Tto  be  urged  on  by  others.    We  hope  our  Mayor 
wi  I  hcVir  need  no  advice  from  others  about  such  n.at- 
Tei  b  tot  hi,  „,„  ,c«.rd,  and  bee.use  it  is  h.s  boundeu 
Z;,tm  all  nasty  and  immo.lest  pictures  to  1.  c«st  m 
our  faces,  as  has  been  doue  m  this  city. 

i  nl  be  remarked  here  that  the  Mayor  of  n.ladelph.a 
exp  ^s  a  willingness,  and,  indeed,  a  wish  to  eflect  the  re- 
::vaT:t-all  deba^mg  P-t-es  visible  from  the  sidewalk,  as 
soon  as  the  measure  now  under  consideration  by  Coune. 
Td  which  shall  confer  fuller  power  than  he  bel.ves  he 
;:t  possesses,  shall  have  l>een  pa.^.     M-jhiU^how- 

ever     "an    indecent  show-bill,      as  was 

aptly    said  by    the    Uncord,   very   lately, 

"  n.eans  an  indecent  show."     By  closing 

the  latter-to  do  which  there  is  unquestionable  and  ex- 

nlL  t  power-the  issuance  of  the  obnoxious  posters  w.ll  be 

£pH  lb"  lutely.     Without  any  doubt,  these  lewd  posters 


An  Indecent  show 
bill  means  an  inde- 
cent show. 


17 


are  dasi^ned  to  stir  up  lascivious  thoughts,  and  to  draw  all 
who  incline  that  way  to  the  chambers  of  death. 

The  annual  report  (1884)  of  the  ^*  Midnight  Mission," 
of  this  city,  after  stating  that  the  fearful  increase  of  the 
social  evil  is  almost  incredible,  says,  in  speaking  of  the 
causes  therefor :  **  The  vile,  flashy  literature,  sown  broad- 
cast over  the  land,  containing  narratives  of  elopements, 
betrayals  and  seductions,  depicted  in  a  sensational,  spicy, 
romantic  manner,  must  also  be  held  responsible.  Our  city 
authorities  deserve  the  greatest  censure  for  allowing  the 
sale  of  this  fatal  poison,  as  well  as  the  display  of  obscene 
and  sensuous  show-bills,  which  greet  the  eye  in  almost 
every  direction." 

The  *'  individual  faithfulness"  referred  to  above,  should, 
I  believe,  impel  those  who  have  any  pronounced  convic- 
tions against  the  demoralizing  literature  of  the  news  stands, 
not  to  patronize  any  of  such  stands  where  the  police  news- 
papers or  the  trashy  story  papers  in  quantity  are  exposed 
for  sale.  And  yet  I  am  bound  to  certify  that,  in  the  mile's 
distance  between  the  newspa})er  publication  offices  which 
cluster  about  Seventh  and  C'hestnut  streets,  and  the  railroad 
depot  which  the  writer  regularly  uses,  he  does  not  know  of 
a  single  news  stand  or  shop  for  the  sale  of  newspapers 
whereat  either  the  so-called  ''blood  and  thunder"  literature 
or  the  immoral  papers  of  the  police  news  stamp  are  not 
kept.  It  may  not  be  altogether  convenient 
or  pleasant  to  disj^ense  at  times  with  one's 
favorite  morning  or  afternoon  paper,  but  what  Is  a  person's 
testimony  for  the   truth,  in   any   connection,  worth   if  it 


Individual  faithful- 
ness the  great  need. 


~^ 


V 

I 


2 


18 

dc..n't  n.,w  and  the.,  bring  with  it  a  greater  or  \^  degree 
.,f  i„eonve..ie.,ce    or    trouble-taking   or   -en    ^-^;h J^" 
Asking  indulgence  for  citing  i>ev^mn\  expr.enct^  n  pou 
1  will  sav  that  one  day  during  the  jmt  sumrr.er,  be.ng  . 
Triton  with  «>me  friends  who  were  going  the  round  ot 
one  S  the  extensive  lottery  works  at  that  ..lace,  t  e  wnter 
desired  to  obtain  a  daily  palmer  to  read  dur.ng  the  ho^r 
whilst   he   awaited   the   return   of  Ins  co.npan.ons      He 
w.  ked  half  a  mile  or  more.  pa«si..g  several  news-d*^lers 
rl  but  as  pape..  of  the  immoral  or  highly  sensat.onal 
ort  were    isplaye.1  in  the  windows  of  all,  he  made  no  pur- 
hir  A  little  later,  being  at  a  large  town  on  the  Hudson 
an^Twi^hing  to  obtain  a  certain  b,>ok  which  was  to  b^^^^^^ 
of  one  dealer  only,  on  the  busy  ma.n  street  of  the  place  he 
entered,  and  was  about  to  ask  for  the  volume,  when,  not.c- 
"gthe  obnoxious  police  newspapers  dispc^ed  .n  pdes  on 
2  counter  before  hin.,  he  had  to  say  that  though  purpos- 
tl7^^  for  a  book,  he  did  ..ot  feel  at  liberty  to  deal 
where  literature  so  hurtful  to  the  commu.nty  was  sold^ 

As  instancing  what  watchfulness  is  called  for  on  be^d 
of  the  voung,  I  will  state  that,  not  long  since,  when  speak 
'to  a  friend  upon  the  topic  of  ,H.rnicious  htemture,  I 
2e^  this  fact :  that,  being  in  a  barber's  shop  several  years 
ago  I  had  observed  his  son  co...e  in,  and,  whi^  wa.t,ng  to 
Served,  that  he  had  picked  up  for  ..erusal  a  ^  Ga^ 
iron,  among  several  other  papers  lying  on  he  tab' «•     I  ha  I 
not  forgotten  the  painful  impression,  together  w.th  the  ted- 
WoJsolicitude,  which  the  little  incident  had  then  awakened. 
He  rejo  ned,  that  he,  hi.uself,  was  In  the  habit  of  patrou.z- 


Watchfulness     on 
behalf  of  the  young. 


19 

ing  the  same  shop,  and  that  the  last  time  he  was  there, 
there  were  no  others  but  police  newspapers  upon  the  table. 
If  that  be  so,  was  replied,  my  two  little  boys  who  occasion- 
ally go  to  the  same  place,  will  have  to  be  looked  after, 
for  they  have  reached  an  age  when  they  may  be  sust^eptible 
to  danger  from  such  things.  In  a  very  few  days  the  dutv 
was  attended  to,  several  of  the  papers 
named  being  found  upon  the  table,  as 
stated.  The  proprietor,  averting  his  face,  said  he  had  not 
thought  anything  seriously  on  the  subject — he  would  not 
to  be  sure,  have  such  papers  go  into  his  own  family — and 
he  certainly  didn't  want  to  do  anything  to  injure  any  of 
his  customers.  But,  it  was  replied,  thou  dost  keep  them, 
notwithstanding,  where  they  may  work  moral  damage  to 
the  children  of  other  peoples'  families.  I  went  away,  but. 
upon  revisiting  the  place  some  weeks  later,  was  gratified  to 
observe  that  the  objectionable  papers  had  disappeared, — 
the  proprietor,  this  time,  squarely  meeting  my  gaze  as  I 
expressed  my  approval  of  his  action.  Evidently,  he  had 
not  seriously  considered  the  full  measure  of  the  accounta- 
bility which  he  incurred  through  the  exposure  of  such  vile 
papers.  But,  the  same  Book  of  Truth  which  assures  a  bless- 
ing to  "the  pure  in  heart — for  they  shall  see  God,"  hasalsc* 
declared  concerning  the  Holy  City  of  which  the  Lamb  is 
the  light  thereof,  that  "  there  shall  in  no  wise  enter  into  it 
any  thing  that  defileth,  neither  whatsoever  worketh  abomi- 
nation, or  maketh  a  lie."* 


*  The  editor  of  the  Barber's  Journal,  Philadelphia,  having  received 
a  copy  of  the  first  etlition  of  this  pamphlet,  with  the  foregoing  para- 


20 

It  seems  to  the  writer,  therefore,  that  inereased  aire  J. 
called  for  on  the  part  of  the  conscientious  patrons  of  the 
newsdealers  in  order  to  the  effective  working  of  any  pre- 
sent or  prospective  law  tonching  pern.c.ous  publ.cat.ons. 
At  the  Lme  time  something  may  be  done  toward  early 
t«,ching  the  little  ones  hereupon.     Thus,  a  go'-^  ~ 
told  me  of  her  little  niece,  of  only  live  summers,  who  hav- 
;  observed  that  trashy  papers  thrown  .nto  the  vest.bu^ 
or  slippe<l  under  the  door  were  always  sun.manly  d.,pos..l 
of  one  day  picked  up  one  of  that  sort  herself,  and.  crumphng 
it'in  her  little  hands,  carried  it  to  the  gutter,  and  dropped 
it  therein  with  evident  satisfaction.     A  mother  wrote  to 
L  of  her  little  daughter,  not  much    older  than  the  one 
iust  mentioned :  "  She  came  to  me  a  short  time  ago  m  great 
distress  because  our  domestic  was  reading  [a  pem.e.ous  t«.- 

perl,  and,  wat<;hing  her  opportunity  w  hen 
IS'^sSiolS     she  laid  it  down,  destroyed  it,  telling  the 
girl  that  our  Heavenly  Father  was  very  much  g>-;eved  at 
any  one  reading  those  '  bad  n.an  papers,  as  she  calls  them_ 
Again:  the  distributor  of  "trash"  had  passed  along  the 
suburban  street  where  I  dwell,  dropping  at^ each  door  o..e 
of  those  many  mischievous  publications  of  Munro-a  i-.re- 
side  Componim.     The  one  thn^no^nv  ^  was_bemg 
.«Dh  „,-,rkc,r"p;^Wi.he<l  a  Ions  and  able  editorial  upon  the  re-sponsi- 
S    o  '  he  traSe  in  this  connection,  conBdently  avorrinR  that  on   he 
^l^t/r:.;     three-tifths  of  the  near.,  ^^ ^^^'^ZZ 
Unite,!  States,  imn.oral  or  trashy  papers  would  he  found.     »-   ^^^  8 
them  capable  of  "  working  a  vast  deal  of  harm,"  ''--l--'.   ;;^;^;'^[: 
to  "burn  those  you  have  on  hand,  and  use  your  voice  and  influence 
ridding  our  land  of  this  great  evil." 


21 


torn  into  diminutive  bite  by  an  employ^,  according  to  her 
habit ;  seeing  whieli  a  little  miss  who  happened  in  from 
next  door,  spoke  up,  "  We  always  put  them  into  the  fire." 
This  latter,  it  is  consoling  to  know,  is  the  summary  dis- 
position which  is  properly  made  of  many  of  these  papers. 

Brief  reference  to  law  upon  the  subject  will  conclude  this 
article.  The  evil,  as  is  universally  acknowledged,  is  gen- 
eral, and  legal  correctives,  beyond  what  are  found  on  most 
statute  books,  are  likewise  conceded  to  be  called  for.  A 
municipality  claiming  any  right  in  law  to  legislate  upon 
bay-windows  and  swinging  signs  as  encroac'hnients  upon 
the  sidewalks,  has  surely  not  less  the  right  to  banish  filthy 
pictures  and  demoralizing  publications  from  the  same  pub- 
lic places.  "  We  will  not  say,"  observed  the  Independent, 
the  present  month,  in  discussing  this  subject,  "  that  the 
world  belongs  to  the  saints,  and  that  they  have  a  commis- 
sion to  rule  it.  But  we  respond  to  as  much  of  that  opinion 
as  is  involved  rn  the  proposition  that  the  moralities  and  de- 
cencies are  sovereign  things,  and  that,  in  their  name  and 
by  their  authority,  decent  people  ought  to  insist  on  ruling 
society.  The  streets  must  be  made  safe  for  boys  and  young 
women.  Could  the  people  know  the  full  extent  of  this 
evil,  it  is  not  out  of  the  probabilities  that  here,  in  demo- 
cratic America,  they  would  propose  some  kind  of  a  censor- 
ship to  stop  it." 

To  American  minds  accustomed  to  connect  the  censorship 
of  the  press  with  publications  prohibited  (as  at  Paris  and 
St.  Petersburg)  for  political  reasons,  or,  as  with  the  Index 
E:rpxi7*gatorivs  o^  the  Roman  curia,  for  religious  or  sectarian 


22 

considerations,  a  suggestion  of  this  nature  might  not  at  the 
first  view  find  entrance.  Nevertheless,  as  every  careful 
parent  and  every  rightly  constituted  board  of  library  mana- 
gers does  exercise  just  such  a  censorship,  why  ought  not 

a  municipality  or  State  possess  the  like 
Plans  of  relief  by  law.    j^rigfjiction  in  the  interests  of  common  de- 
cencv,  over  what  is  exposed  or  offered  uiK.n  the  public  side- 
walks?    A  board  of  ten  or  twelve  examiners  or  censors 
(Wh  men  and  women),  nan.cd  by  the  judg.s  from  lists 
furnished  by  the  representative  iKKlies  of  tl.e  several  relig- 
ious denominations,  and  whose  power  to  prohibit  would  ex- 
tend only  to  the  inde<ent  and  positively  pernicious,  and  no 
ut  all  to  matters  of  religious  belief  or  politick,  might,  it  would 
seem,  be  safely  welcomed  by  every  truly  concern«l  parent 
We  may  not  be  prepared  to  ait;ept  this  method  of  relief, 
nor  the  plan  of  contracts,  with  (unpaid)  permits,  s.m.kr  to 
those  in  operation  between  the  news  agents  an.l  railroad 
companies  upon  many  thousand  miles  of  railway.     It  is 
not  the  purpose  of  this   article   to  discuss  those  points. 
Nevertheless,  relief  ."^  urgently  called  for;  and  ,f  the  law- 
makers of  the  city  of  Brotherly  Love  .^an  formulate  and 
enact  a  reallv  effective  and  judicious  measure,  which  shall 
omrate  to  banish  manifestly  pernicious  prints  and  publica- 
tions  from  our  thoroughfares,  they   will  not  only   have 
helped  themselves  with  that  charity  which  begins  at  home, 
but  thev  will  have  also  performed  an  eminent  service  for 
every  other  community  which  is  afflicted  with  this  great 
moral  distemper  of  printed  iioison.  ^  ^^^   ^ 

Germantown,  Twelfth  month,  1884. 


OF  LOCAL  HAPPENING. 


In  narrating  the  following  facts  of  a  partly  personal  character,  the  writer  disclaims 
any  wish  either  to  magnify  the  slight  service  into  which  he  was  called,  or  to  have  it 
inferred  that  so  far  as  his  connection  went  that  service  was  performed  in  the  wisest  or 
best  manner,  or,  again,  that  a  similar  procedure  may  be  advantageously  followed  in 
other  places.  The  ways  and  the  times  for  rightly  testifying  to  any  truth,  or  upholding 
any  principle,  may  safely  be  left,  in  individual  cases,  to  the  guiding  hand  of  Him  who 
both  puts  forth  and  restrains,  and  whose  prescience  sees  the  end  from  the  beginning. 

In  the  Autumn  of  1882,  the  writer  having  been  called 
to  serve  upon  the  Grand  Jury  of  the  Quarter  Sessions 
Court,  opportunity  was  offered  him  through  the  medium 
of  the  final  presentment,  to  call  public  attention  to  the  sub- 
ject of  pernicious  pa[)ers  and  posters.  Special  reference  was 
therein  made  to  the  news-stand  within  the  new  City  Hall 
— not,  indeed,  because  it  was  an  offender  beyond  most 
others,  but  owing  to  the  fact  of  its  being  upon  the  city's 
immediate  property.  The  stand  was  mostly  closed  during 
1883,  but,  having  l)een  re-opened  last  year,  the  writer  ad- 
dressed a  petition  to  City  Councils  early  in  the  summer, 
asking  for  the  passage  of  a  resolution  requesting  the  Com- 
missioners of  Public  Buildings  to  prohibit  papers  of  an  im- 
moral character  at  said  stand,  "particularly  in  view  of  the 
fact  of  its  being  located  upon  j)ublic  property,  and  under  the 
very  shelter  of  the  municipal  halls  of  justice  and  legis- 
lation."    Action    was    promptly    taken    by  Councils,    the 


24 


Sale  of  police  pa- 
pers prohibited  at  the 
City  Hall,  Phila. 


resolution  to  the  Public  Buildings'  Commission  was  passeil 
xvithout  opposition,  and  the  Police  Gazette,  Police  Neics, 

and  lllmtrated  Times  were  thereupon  pro- 
hibited,   and    have    not  (to   the   writer's 
knowledge)  been  exposed  for  sale  at  the 
place  named,  since.     A  helpful  prec>edent  was  thus  estab- 

lishetl.*  ,  .    ,  .      1 

About  a  month  later,  the  writer  believed  it  his  plac^  to 

eall  the  attention  of  the  representative  meetings  of  several 
religious  bodies-as  the  Friends,  Presbyterians  and  Bap- 
tists—to the  fact  that  at  the  news-stand  in  the  new  City 
Post  Office,  objectionable  i)apers,  such  as  above  referred  to, 
were  on  sale,  and  desiring  their  concurrence  in  bringing  the 
matter  to  the  notice  of  the  Government  authorities.     This 
was  proposed  to  be  done,  not  simply  with  the  object  of  se- 
curing the  prohibition  of  immoral  papers  at  that  particular 
stand,  but  with  the  hope  that  "  a  rule  might  issue  of  a  gen- 
eral character  upon  the  matter,  operative  in  all  post-offices 
owned  or  leased  by  the  United  States  Government,  and  in. 
which  the  right  of  the  Government's  oversight  and  regula- 
tion of  the  news-stands  could  not  l)e  contested."     Likewise, 
"  that  the  promulgation  of  such  a  rule  on  the  part  of  the 
Post  Office  Department  would  be  of  great  value  as  a  pre- 
cedent, and  that  it  would  very  much  aid  State  Governments, 
Councils  in  cities,  and   local. communities  everywhere  m 
dealing  with  an  evil  which  mwst  be  met,^'        

'  *  TheAttornev-General^f  luiii^^^  lately  published  an  opinion 
that  the  three  papers  above  named  are  obscene  sheets,  whose  circula- 
tion should  be  suppressed  under  existing  laws. 


2o 


Prohibition  at  Phil- 
adelphia Post-office. 


The  religious  bodies  named  above  cordially  united  in  the 
proposed  recommendation,  and  in  consequence  of  the  repre- 
sentations thereupon  made  (to  the  Secretary  of  tlie  Treasury, 
as  charged  with  the  care  of  the  Government  buildings)  the 
Postmaster  at  Philadelphia  was  notified  to  "  issue  such  in- 
structions as  will  prohibit  the  display  or  sale  of  all  publica- 
tions of  the  character  referred  to."  With 
respect  to  the  further  suggestion  likewise 
made  to  the  Department  by  the  above  remonstrants  rela- 
tive to  a  general  rule  upon  the  subject.  Assistant  Secretary 
Coon  stated,  that  as  authority  had  been  given  in  but  a  very 
limited  number  of  instances  to  erect  such  stands,  "prompt 
mejisures  will  be  taken  to  abate  the  nuisance,"  should  com- 
plaint be  made  to  the  Department  that  demoralizing  litera- 
ture is  offered  for  sale  at  any  of  the  allowed  jjlaces.  Our 
Postmaster  at  once  prohibited  at  the  stand  the  several  is- 
sues of  papers  of  the  police  news  stamp — a  prohibition 
which  has  been  absolutely  resj^ected,  so  far  at  least  as  the 
same  is  apparent  to  outward  observation.  It  is  to  be  hoped 
that  the  contenders  for  decency  in  other  large  cities  where 
post-office  stands  are  allowed,  will  l>e  watchful  to  se<*ure 
and  to  maintain  similar  exemption. 

Next,  with  the  opening  of  the  play-houses  in  the  autumn, 
there  came  the  usual  display  of  indecent  show-bills,  adver- 
tising thom.  The  writer  made  sundry  complain-ts  to  the 
Mayor  respecting  these  demoralizing  productions,  securing 
the  removal  of^those  which  he  definitely  specified.  It  was 
seen,  however,  that  as  the  offenders  had  but  little  fear  of 
any  penalty  being  imposed,  there  was  a  disposition  to  put 


26 


Indecent  posters  re 
moved. 


Other  placards  and  show-bills,  equally  objectionable,  in  the 
place  of  those  ordered  down.  Further,  the  Mayor  hav- 
ing expressed  the   belief  that   his   authority  to  prohibit 

immoral  prints  when  displayed  within 
a  building — as  in  the  show-windows  of 
salwns,  cigar  stores,  stationers'  shops,  etc.,— was  not  clearly 
defined,  the  writer  judged  it  well  to  bring  the  whole  matter 
to  the  attention  of  Councils.  With  that  object  in  view, 
and  at  the  same  time  to  enlist  the  sympathies  of  parents 
and  teachers  in  the  important  subject,  the  following  memo- 
rial was  submitted  to  the  Board  of  Education: 


To  the  Board  of  Education: 

Not  many  days  ago,  the  undersigned  was  the  recipient 
of  a  letter  from  a  Christian  mother  of  this  city,  who,  in  re- 
ferring to  the  flict  that  our  public  sidewalks  are  rendered 
morally  unsafe  for  the  young,  by  reason  of  the  pernicious 
posters  and  periodicals  that  are  so  abundantly  displayed  or 
offered  for  sale  thereupon,  also  observetl  that  this  subjec't 
had  lain  for  years  like  a  weight  upon  her  mind  ;  that  she 
had  noted  with  extreme  solicitude  how  the  purity  of  the 
young  had  been  imperilled  by  these  contaminating  things; 
and  that,  though  herself  but  a  weak  woman,  she  could  at 
least  supplicate  for  a  blessing  upon  all  right  endeavoi^  to 
rid  our  fair  city  of  this  abounding  i>est  of  demoralizing 

pictures  and  prints. 

In  bringing  this  matter  briefly  to  your  attention,  I  would 
say  that  the  very  serious .  concern  which  this  one  lady  ex- 
pressed, is,  I  suppose,  such  an  one  as  has  been  felt,  to  a 


•27 


The  Board  of  Edu- 
cation memorialized. 


greater  or  less  degree,  by  thousands  of  parents  whose  chil- 
dren attend  the  schools  of  Philadelphia.  Knowing  that 
practical  measures  for  abating  the  evil  have,  of  late,  been 
either  adopted  or  are  in  course  of  adop- 
tion in  New  York,  Chicago,  Pittsburg, 
Hartford  and  other  American  cities,  it  would  appear  as 
though  there  should  be  no  further  delay  in  securing  for 
this  community  the  passage  of  some  general  enactment  for- 
bidding the  use  of  our  public  sidewalks  by  reckless  or  un- 
principled men  for  the  display  or  sale  of  their  debasing 
works.  And  here  it  will  not  be  out  of  place  to  refer  to  the 
pathetic  words  of  the  founder  of  our  Commonwealth,  who, 
when  about  to  leave  his  city  of  Philadelphia,  just  two 
hundred  years  ago  (1684),  feelingly  said:  "What  love, 
what  care,  what  service,  and  what  travail  has  there  been 
to  bring  thee  forth  and  preserve  thee  from  such  as  would 
abuse  and  defile  thee !  Oh,  that  thou  mayst  be  kept  from 
the  evil  that  would  overwhelm  thee !" 

Believing  that  the  Board  of  Education  recognize,  and  are 
not  indifferent  to,  the  obviously  mischievous  influence  upon 
the  school  children  of  the  debasing,  brutalizing  and  crime- 
inciting  pictures  and  publications  to  be  seen  upon  or  about 
our  sidewalks,  your  addresser  respectfully  and  earnestly 
suggests  that,  as  a  body  watchful  of  the  best  interests  of 
our  public  school  population,  you  submit  this  matter  to  the 
attention  of  City  Councils.  Having  had  occasion  lately  to 
remark  the  unanimity  with  which  that  body  acted  in  re- 
questing the  Public  Buildings  Commissioners  to  prohibit 
the  sale  of  Police  Gazettes  and  like  papers,  upon  certain  city 


28 


property,  and  having  been  i>ersonally  assured  by  the  Mayor 
that  he  is  very  desirous  tliat  a  prohibitory  measure  of  gen- 
eral character,  relative  to  pernicious  posters  and  papers,  be 
enacted,  I  have,  therefore,  no  doubt  that  Councils  will 
promptly  grant  relief  in  the  premises  so  soon  as  the  sub- 
jet^t  shall  have  been  formally  brought  before  them. 
Very  respectfully,  your  friend  and  fellow-citizen, 

(Termantown,  11th  month  10th,  1884. 

The  foregoing  communication  received  the  prompt  ap- 
proval of  the  Bmird,  and,  with  a  comprehensive  resolution, 
which  was  also  adopted,  was  dire<'ted  to  be  forwarded  to 
Councils.  The  Methodist  Preachers'  Meeting  expressed 
its  unity  with  the  action  of  the  Board  in  resolutions  which 
were  presented  to  Councils  at  the  same  time.  The  Minis- 
ters' Meeting  of  the  Baptist  den9mination  appointed  a  com- 
mittee to  aid  in  the  matter  as  the  way  opened,  whilst  a 
representative  body  of  the  Society  of  Friends,  which  had 

been  laboring  in  this  direction  for  a  num- 
ber of  months,  also  memorialized  Councils 
upon  the  subject.  Of  probably  equal  weight  with  any  of 
the  above  requests  for  (city)  legislative  relief,  was  the  fol- 
lowing petition  signed  by  the  well-known  lowmotive- 
building  firm  of  Burnham,  Parry,  Williams  &  Co.,  and  by 
several  hundreds  of  the  employees  (many  of  them  parents) 
in  their  offices  and  shops.  The  memorial  was  accompanied 
by  a  note,  which,  in  apologizing  for  the  necessarily  soiled 
ajppearance  of  the  document,  concluded  that  a  little  dirt  of 
that  character  would  be  overlooked  in  view  of  the  fact  that 


Unity  expressed  by 
the  religious  bodies. 


29 


the  foulness  it  sought   to   overcome  was  so  exc(M?dingly 
greater.     The  paper  reads  thus : 

"  The  memorial  of  the  undersigned,  members  of  the  firm, 
and  employees  in  the  office  and  shops  of  The  Bat.dwin 
Locomotive  Works,  sets  forth :  That  we  have  viewed 
with  wonder  and  serious  concern  the  way  in  which  the 
privilege  of  displaying  posters  and  of  offi?ring  for  sale  news- 
paper and  magazine  literature  upon  or  about  our  public 
sidewalks,  has  been  abused,  both  by  the  exposure  of  pic- 
tures of  an  indecent  and  brutalizing  character,  as  well  as  of 
publications  of  an  immoral,  highly  sensational,  and  (rightly 
termed)  ^  blood  and  thunder'  sort ;  that  we  believe  these 
publications  and  pictures  to  be  unmistakably  demoralizing 
in  their  character,  being  aimed  at  the  purity  of  the  people, 
a  menace  to  orderly  government  in  homes  and  schools,  and 
direct  inciters  to  crime;  that,  whilst  amazed  at  the  immu- 
nity hitherto  allowed  to  men  of  depraved  minds  thus  to  ex- 
pose and'  spread  abroad  their  pernicious  productions,  we 
have,  nevertheless,  observed  with  great 
satisfaction,  the  action  taken  by  the  Board 
of  Education  in  definitely  calling  attention 
to  the  evil ;  and,  finally,  that  in  the  words  of  the  resolution 
unanimously  adopted  by  that  body,  and  in  the  confidence 
that  their  and  our  eminently  reasonable  request  will  not  be 
unheeded,  we  also  earnestly  desire  that  you  will  '  with 
promptitude  devise  some  measure  for  abating  the  alarm- 
ing and  growing  evil  referred  to.'  " 

Meanwhile,  two  bills  upon  the  subject  have  been  brought 


Memorial  from  the 
Baldwin  Locomotive 
Works. 


Relief  measures  be 
fore  Councils. 


30 

before  Councils:  one  by  Select  Coiinciluian  John  H.  Gra- 
ham (introduced  by  request),  and  the  other,  by  Common 
Councilman  Thomas  Meehan,  by  whom  it  was  prepared. 
Both  were  referred  to  the  Committees  on  Law,  before  whom 
a  hearing  of  the  favorers  and  the  opposers  (in  whole  or  in 
part)  of  the  proposed  legislation  was  had.  It  is  not  im- 
probable that  an  ordinance  embodying  portions  of  eac^h  bill 
may  be  eventually  recommended  by  the  Committee.  The 
**  Graham  bill,"  as  its  special  feature,  provides  that  a  permit 
(uncharged)  shall  be  required  to  be  taken  out  by  every  per- 

son  who  shall  open  or  maintain  "any 
news-stand,  stall  or  shop  for  the  sale  of 
newspapers,  magazines,  story  papers  and  simihir  printed 
matter  on  any  pul)lic  street  or  passage-way  of  the  city ;" 
that  every  person  so  intending  as  above,  shall  subscribe  in 
writing  to  the  contract  not  to  sell,  lend,  give  away,  or  oflfer 
to  give  away,  or  keep,  or  exhibit  to  the  view  any  immoral 
or  pernicious  prints  or  other  productions  of  the  character 
specified  in  the  bill ;  that  the  permit  shall  receive  the  signa- 
ture of  the  Mayor  in  addition  to  that  of  the  responsible  pro- 
prietor of  the  news-stand,  &c.;  that  it  shall  have  u[)on  it  the 
exact  location  of  said  stand  ;  that  the  w  hole  of  the  ordinance 
shall  be  printed  upon  and  made  a  part  of  thei)ermit,  and  be 
kept  in  a  frame  or  mounted  on  heavy  card-board,  and  shall 
be  "so  hung  up,  nailed  up,  or  otherwise  conspicuou.«Jy  ex- 
posed to  the  unobstructed  view  as  to  be  readily  seen  and 
read."  The  penalty  for  violating  any  of  the  conditions  of 
the  ordinance  then  follows. 

As  a  matter  of  information  which  may  be  serviceable,  it 


81 


Prohibitory  clauses 
for  news  contracts. 


should  be  said  that  the  permit  feature  forming  a  part  of 
the  above  ordinance,  is  analogous  to  the  restrictive  con- 
tracts with  the  news  agents  which  are  in  force  upon  many 
railway  and  steamboat  lines  in  the  United  States  and 
Canada.  The  following  is  a  principal  clause  in  such  con- 
tracts: "It  is  further  agreed  that  no  obscene,  profane,  vul- 
gar, or  improper  literature,  prints,  pictures, 
or  publications  of  any  kind,  shall  be  kept, 
sold,  or  offered  for  sale  on  the  trains  or  premises  of  said 
company ;  nor  shall  any  newspaper  or  other  publication  be 
sold  on  the  trains  or  premises  of  said  company  which  is 
prohibited  by  the  [superintendent]  or  any  other  officer  of 
said  company  in  charge  of  this  department." 

The  "  permit  bill"  finds  no  favor  with  the  publishers  and 
dealers  generally.  It  would  probably  have  to  be  altered 
in  several  respects  to  be  technically  unassailable  ;  but  should 
its  passage  be  not  now  pressed  in  this  city,  a  like  measure 
may,  nevertheless,  afford  a  means  of  relief  for  some  other 
place  or  places  where  a  stronger  right  sentiment  prevails. 
With  this  helpful  purpose  in  view,  it  has  been  somewhat 
fully  referred  to  here.  Another  plan  of  relief  which  should 
not  be  lost  sight  of,  is  that  to  which  allusion  is  made  in  the 
latter  part  of  the  preceding  article,  to  wit :  A  Board  of  Ex- 
aminers or  Censors  (men  and  women),  to  be  appointed  by 
the  judges,  from  lists  furnished  the  latter  by  the  representa- 
tive bodies  of  the  several  religious  denominations.     (See 

page  22  ante.) 

Further,  there  needs  to  be  more  attention  given,   and 
care  extended  relative  to  the  character  of  the  printed  matter 


The   home   protec 
tion  that  is  lacking. 


82 

which  is  carried  by  express  or  through  the  mails,  the  length 
and  breadth  of  the  land.  Everywhere  in  the  far  West,  in 
frontier  towns  and  in  mining  camps,  the  demoralizing  illus- 
trated prints  from  the  presses  of  the  Eastern  cities  are  to  l)e 

met  with.  Henc^e,  we  may,  with  benetit, 
take  a  lesson  in  home  protection  from  a  pro- 
vision of  the  tariff  act  of  Canada,  which  is  pointedly  directerl 
against  the  pernicious  printed  matter  manufactured  on  this 
side  the  Great  Lakes  and  the  St.  Lawrence.  The  law  of  our 
north-border  neighbor  declares  that  these  publications  shall 
not  be  permitted  to  enter  tlie  Dominion.  Upon  the  change 
in  the  Governor  Generalship  about  four  years  ago,  fresh  in- 
structions to  the  coUecrtors  upon  this  point  were  issued,  as 
follows:  *'You  are  requested  to  use  the  greatest  care  in 
preventing  the  importation  or  sale  of  such  immoral  and 
indecent  publications  as  [names  given]  and  similar  papers. 
It  is  not  necessary  for  you  to  wait  for  special  notice  of  any 
publication  by  name  from  this  department,  but  it  is  your 
duty  to  exercise  your  own  judgment  as  to  what  may  be  pro- 
i)eriy  classed  under  the  prohibitory  clause  of  the  tariff."* 

No  definite  allusion  has  been  made  in  the  foregoing  page> 
,to  the  daily  papers.  The  question  has  been  put  to  me, 
what  lo<-al  daily  could  I  conscientiously  recommend  as  safe 
to  be  taken  in  a  family  where  there  are  children.  A  manu- 
facturer wrote  recently,  in  reference  to  this  point :  ''  A  very 
prominent  business  man  of  this  city  stated  in  public,  that 
there  were  but  two  [local]  newspapers  fit  to  be  taken  into  a 


The  dallies  of  Phila- 
delphia and  of  other 
cities. 


*  Philadelphia  Evening  BuOetin,  1882. 


33 

respectable  fiimily,"  and,  my  informant  added,  ''  We  have 
sundry  papers  in  this  city  that  ought  to  be  prevented  from 
being  sent  through  the  mails  on  account  of  their  gross  and 
filthy  articles.  What  can  you  do  for  morality  when  each  (?) 
of  our  daily  papers  have  reporters  that  are  like  fine-scented 
houtids  on  the  track  of  a  scandal." 

Well,  we  do  possess  very  varying  grades  of  quality  in  our 
dailies:  from  the  several  that  are  as  nearly  unexceptiona- 
ble, I  suj)pose,  as  any  that  are  to  be  found  in  any  large 
city,  and  in  the  preparation  of  which  the 
editors  a:id  publishers  find  need  to  nar- 
rowly inspect,  assort  and  amend,  and  very 
often  reject,  the  findings  of  their  enterprising  reporters, 
down  to  the  sheet  of  the  lowest  stamp,  in  whose  conscience- 
less make-up  the  scandal-mongering  propensity  has  known 
no  check,  and,  respecting  the  damage  to  follow  the  reading 
of  which,  there  does  not  seem  to  have  been  given  a  thought. 
What  parent  is  there  who  prizes  things  pure,  holy,  and 
of  good  rej)ort,  who  would  not  rather  lay  his  child  in  the 
grave  at  once,  than  to  believe  him  destined  to  take  delight 
in  the  perusal  of  papers  of  so  offensive  and  offending  a 
character  ? 

Says  the  Congregationalist,  of  Boston :  "  A  most  intelli- 
gent Christian  gentleman  last  week  told  us,  that  he  had 
discontinued  his  long  subscription  to  a  leading  Massachu- 
setts daily,  for  no  other  reason  than  that  he  could  not  but 
feel  that  its  unedited  news  columns  were  neither  decent  nor 
safe  for  the  reading  of  his  family."  A  New  York  paper 
of  last  year  said  :  "  An  examination  recently  made  showed 

3 


34 

that  in  the  five  leailinir  New  York  morning  papen^,  exclud- 
ing the  market  reports  and  shipping  news,  an  avemge  of 
thirty  per  cent  of  the  spaee  given  to  reading  matter  was 
devoted  to  accounts  of  murders,  suicides,  and  crnues  oi 
every  grade,  dressed  up  in  all  the  circumstantial  detads 
possible  to  be  obtaincnl."  The  Christian  Weekly  of  the 
same  citv,  as  the  result  of  a  critic^al  examen  of  the  make- up 
of  the  metropolitiin  dailies,  concludes:  -There  is  scarcely 
one  that  has  not  turned  its  face  in  the  direction  [ot  the  de- 
moralizing]. There  is  not  one  of  the  great  dailies  that  is 
using  any'such  proportion  of  its  power  as  it  might  in  the 
direction  of  the  moral  uplifting  of  the  community." 

It  is  gratifying  to  be  able  to  note,  as  indicating  a  better 
tendency  in  'this  city,  that  the  two  Philadelphia   dailies 
which  happen  to  be  on  my  table  as  1  write,  each  contain 
but  about  ten  to  twelve  per  cent,  of  criminal   news,  that 
these  items  of  news  are  not  'Pressed  up  in  all  the  circum- 
stantial details"  such  as  gave  iKxvasion  for  the  just  c(»mplaint 
above  (luoted,  and  that  the  papers  themselves  are  issued 
on    no  more  than  six  days  of  the  week.     Commendable 
was  the  habit  (would  that  it  were  general!)  of  one  of  our 
.  late  well-to-do   and  highly-respected  merchants,  who,    in 
'  essaying  to  maintain  his  newspaper  reading  within  what  he 
judged  to  be  its  rightful  limits,  would  not  open  the  paper 
untTl  after  the  morning  meal  and  the  reading  of  his  Bible 
were  finished.     Neither  would  he  read  a  secular  pajKT  on 
the  first  day  of  the  week,  lest,  falling  into  the  habit,  it 
should  grow  upon  him  apace,  and  so  his  thoughts  be  bound 
down  to  earth    and  its  perishing  things,  while  the   best 
interests  of  his  children  should  suffer  neglect  at  his  hands. 


35 


The  two  citations  from  the  Boston  and  New  York  papers 
merely  take  cognizance  of  the  pernicious  in    the    "  space 
given  to  reading  matter"— -the  editor's  peculiar  province. 
Not  infrequently,  however,    painstaking  conscientiousness 
in  the  news  columns  will  be  apparent,  when  the  publisher's 
special  department— that  of  the  advertisements,  will  be  (in 
part)  of  a  character  quite  at  variance  with  what  might  rea- 
sonably be  lookeil  for.     Thus,  conspicuous  advertisements 
of  revolvers   have  very  often   api)eared   in   papers  of  the 
religious  press,  yet,  so  apparent  now   is  the   connection 
between  homicides  and  pistol-carrying,  that    mischievous 
insertions   of  that  sort,   are,   I    think,  seldom    admitted. 
On  the  other  hand,  such  an  iniquitous  or  "  unedited"  class 
of  advertisements  as  those  of  the  variety  theatres  and  of 
many  other  debasing  resorts,  are  accepted  by  very  many, 
perhaps  a  large  majority,  of  the  dailies. 
Nevertheless,  to  issue  through  the  medium 
(»f  a  daily  paper  freely  admitted  to  our  homes,  invitations 
to  resorts  notoriously  degrading,  is,  without  doubt,  to  hand 
forth  "  printed  poison"  of  the  most  unmistakable  character. 
The  language  of  the  Lord  God  to  gainsaying  Israel,  after 
He   had   set  their  backslidings,  perversities,  and   double- 
dealing  in  order    before  them,   was — Are  not  your   woyn 
unequalf      And    when,    at   the   great   assize,   inquest  for 
blood   shall  go  forth,  and  the  cry  of  the  children   whose 
souls  were  slain  in  dens  of  iniquity  shall  reach  the  ear  of 
the  Almighty  Arbiter,  what  answer  will  be  made  by  those 
who  knowindv  Printed  the    Way,  and   pointed   out 
the  paths  to  the  chambers  of  death  ? 


Dailies  advertising 
low  places  of  resort. 


THE  PERNICIOUS  IN  UBRARIES. 


The  man  who  founds,  or  the  corporiition  or  committee 
which  estublishes,  a  free  public  library  in  any  community, 
is  usually  esteemed,  without  controversy,  to  have  sui)plied 
the  people  with  a  great  and  wise  benefaction.  In  many 
cases  this  persuasion  holds  true,  but  in  very  many  others, 
even  where  the  library  is  started  on  a  fair  foundation  and 
with  the  prospect  of  continuing  to  be  a  source  of  rational 
entertiiinment  and  enlightenment— a  fount  of  blessing  to 
the  district  in  which  it  is  placed— the  revei-se  of  all  this 
has  too  often  resulted.  And  this  has  happened,  probably 
in  the  large  majority  of  such  cases,  because  the  mana- 
irers  in  charge  have  weakly  succumbed  to  the  craving  for 

fiction,  even  to  the  extent  of  supplying 
trashy,  vapid,  and  often  immoral  works, 
only  a  very  little  better  in  their  general  quality  than  the  ave- 
rage of  the  fiction  retailed  at  the  sidewalk  news-stands.  I 
have  before  me  the  report  of  a  certain  public  library, 
and  it  shows  that  the  proportion  of  works  of  fiction  to  those 
of  science,  taken  out  the  past  year,  was  as  54  to  1. 

In  an  article  upon  ''  Divorce  versus  Fiction,"  contributed 
bv  the  writer  to  a  weekly  journal  about  four  years  ago,  the 
following  upon  the  topic  before  us,  may  be  pertinently 
introduced  in  this  place. 


Trashy  fiction   in 
public  libraries. 


87 

'^  It  was  to  the  munificence  of  Joshua  Bates  that  the 
great  Boston  I^ibrary  owed  its  existence.  In  expressing 
his  chief  purpose  some  years  before  the  war,  relative  to 
foundinij  such  a  librarv,  he  wrote  that  he  was  actuated  by 
a  desire  ^  to  save  those,  who,  left  to  themselves,  [would] 
waste  their  time  in  railroad  literature,  chiefly  American 
novels.  These  publications,*  he  continues,  ^  are  doing  im- 
mense mischief,  and  the  rising  generation  will  grow  up 
ilestitute  of  positive  knowledge.'  How  have  the  provisions 
of  the  trust  in  this  respect  been  observed  ?  It  appears  that 
one-third  of  all  the  books  purchased  are  novels  and  story- 
books, and  that  between  three- fourths  and  four-fifths  of  the 
library's  circulation  is  confined  to  this  class.  So  anxious, 
indeed,  appears  to  be  the  desire  to  cater  to  the  depraved 
taste  of  the  public  in  this  direction,  that — scarcely  credible 
though  the  statement  seems — an  average  of  ten  copies  of 
each  novel  are  procured. 

*'  Rwently  a  committee,  apj>ointed  by  the  Boston  City 
Council,  made  inquiry  into  the  management  of  this  library. 
A  clergyman  who  gave  his  evidence  as  to  the  character  of 
the  Fiction,  says  he  s|)ent  several  days  in  a  critical  exami- 
nation of  the  very  large  number  of  books  in  that  depart- 
ment, and  that  he  was  amazed  at  the  mass  of  pernicious 
publications  which  has  l>een  there  brought  together.* 

"  As  to  the  (character  of  these  novels,  it  has  been  found 


•^  A  head  master  of  one  of  the  Boston  schools  who  had  given  atten- 
tion to  his  pupils'  reading,  remarked:  "The  Public  Library  is  a  curse 
to  the  school  children."  There  has  been  some  attempt  at  improve- 
ment, it  is  said,  since  the  subject  was  publicly  agitated. 


;J8 


hv  experience  that  those  which  are  the  most  sensational, 
those  which  most  deal  in  the  follies  and  rank  vices  of  men 
and  women,  are  most  in  demand.  The  temptation  to  win 
present  favor  by  this  means,  and  an  easy  return  for  their 
toil,  is  one  which  most  authors,  struj^gling  for  a  mere  liv- 
ing, find  it  hard  to  resist ;  whilst  publishers,  on  their  part, 
can  dispose  of  an  average  edition  of  almost  any  novel  they 
bring  out,  to  the  puhlie  lihraiies  ! 

"'To  give  an  idea,'  continues  the  writer  in  i\\Q  Inter- 
national  Review,  'of  what  the  ordinary  novel  of  the  day  is, 
I  will  take  from  a  leading  P^nglish  journal,  the  Spectator, 
which  happens  to  lie  on  my  desk  as  I  write,  the  notices  ot 
the  novels  of  the  week.     They  are  seven  in  number.     The 

first  has  for  a  heroine  a  woman  who  con- 
fesses that  under  certain  (nrcumstances  she 
would  set  love  above  law.  The  hero  is 
created  to  show  in  what  a  refined  way  he  can  fall  in  love 
with  another  man's  wife.  The  object  of  the  book  is  to 
introduce  some  very  indifferent  scoffs  at  religion  and  relig- 
ious  people.  The  next  is  a  dull  story  not  wholly  free  from 
vuhmritv.  In  the  third  there  is  a  horrible  element' — and 
so  on.  He  does  not  find  one  of  the  seven  which  could  be 
called  good  and  proper  reading,  even  for  a  novel-reader, 
and  yet  such  publications  as  these  are  placed  by  thousands 
upon  the  shelves  of  all  the  large  libraries,  and  are  sought 
for  by  the  readers  more  greedily  than  are  any  others  of  the 
books.  A  free  public  library,  managed  upon  such  princi- 
ples as  these,  would  seem  to  be  the  worst  enemy  that  any 
cx)mraunity  could  set  in  its  midst. 


The  Divorce  evil  pro- 
moted by  public  libra- 
ries. 


39 


"It  would  therefore  appear  that,  to  this  pernicious 
leaven,  constantly  working  in  a  section  of  our  country 
notably  Ix^tter  provided  with  free  libraries  than  any  other, 
to  the  same  influence  working  through  the  trashy  publi- 
cations of  the  news-stands,  and  to  the  play-houses  whence 
people  are  drawn  in  droves  away  from  the  houses  of  wor- 
ship, may  be  found  several  active  causes  ever  operating 
against  the  unity  and  peace  of  the  family,  and  ever  tending 
to  make  the  occasion  for  divorce  more  and  more  frequent."* 

Having  set  out  with  the  conscientious  purpose  of  candidly 
resting  the  responsibility  for  the  prevalence  of  the  printed 
poison  evil  where  it  properly  belongs,  the  writer  in  conclu- 
sion offers  the  following  paragraph  upon  Sabbath  School 
libraries  as  in  many  cases  fostering  (alas,  that  it  should 
\ye  said!)  the  popular  craving  for  the  untrue,  trashy,  super- 
ficial, and  pernicious.  The  sentences  appended  are  those 
of  the  well-ijiformed  editors  of  the  Guide  to  Holiness, 

"  There  needs  to  be  a  great  purgation  of  Sunday  School 
libraries.  The  best  use  that  could  be  made  of  some  of 
them  would  be  to  make  a  great  bonfire  of  them.  They  are 
polluting  the  tender  minds  of  our  children  and  youth.  A 
distinguished  Sabbath  School  worker  said, 
some  years  ago,  '  that  he  was  almost  ready 
to  advocate  their  total  abandonment,'  so  convinced  was 
he  of  their  pernicious  influence.  A  Sabbath  School  Com- 
mittee, armed  with  $50  or  *100,  comes  to  the  city  to 
select  books.     They  have  only  two  or  three  hours  to  spend 

*  The  Friend,  Third  Month  5th,  1881.     Reprinted  in  Circular  No. 
5,  of  the  American  Literary  Union  and  Pure  Literature  Bureau. 


The  trashy  in  Sab- 
bath School  libraries. 


40 


ill  the  selection  of  food  for  the  young  lambs.  They 
hurriedly  pass  around  among  the  publishers,  eager  to 
catch  an  early  train  for  home.  Publishers'  clerks  throw 
down  upon  the  counters  books  with  taking  titles  and 
well-gilded  covers.  The  takiny  titles  take  the  Committee, 
and  away  they  go  to  spread  their  new-found  treasures  l)e- 
fore  their  young  charge.  The  eyes  of  the  little  people 
sparkle  as  they  see  the  well-gilded  volumes.  Alas,  for  us ! 
The  gild  is  only  on  the  outside.  Inside  is  trash.  The 
deadly  influence  of  this  superficial  selection  of  books  is  be- 
ing felt  all  over  the  land.  We  are  in  great  perplexity 
about  it.  Friends  write  to  us  to  advise  them  how  to  select 
books ;  but  we  are  at  a  loss  to  give  advice.  Sabbath  School 
book  publishers  are  catering  to  the  popular  taste.  Who- 
ever wnll  step  forward  and  solve  this  problem,  one  of  the 
greatest  problems  of  the  times,  how  to  keep  the  minds  of 
our  children  and  youth  from  the  poison  of  modern  Sabbath 
School  literature,  will  be  a  real  benefactor." 


< 


< 


CONCLUDING  REMARK. 


So,  it  will  not  suffice  to  condemn  and  even  to  suppress 
the  demoralizing  publications  of  the  news-shop  and  street 
stand,  without  there  is  also  witnessed  an  honest,  sympathetic 
movement  on  the  part  of  the  managers  of  public  libraries, 
as  well  as  those  of  "  Sabbath  Schools,''  that  shall  purge, 
weed  out,  and  destroy  every  publication  upon  their  shelves, 
which,  upon  a  deliberate  and  dispassionate  examination 
shall  be  seen  to  be  unmistakably  pernicious.  I  trust  the'' 
word  "destroy"  doesn't  sound  too  strong.  There  is  a 
quite  large  and  well-patronized  library  in  the  suburbs  of 
this  city,  whose  custodian  has  instructions  to  deposit  any 
book  of  undoubtedly  demoralizing  tendency  in  the  furnace, 
when  said  book  cannot  be  returned  to  the  dealer  of  whom 
it  was  purchased.  Though  occasions  for  the  exercise  of 
so  extreme  a  measure  rarely  arise — for  the  purchasing 
committee  critically  and  conscientiously  inspect  the  books 
they  order — yet,  gilt  edges,  and  ornamental  covers,  and 
fine  typography,  are  vain  and  ineffectual  defences  when 
badness  has  been  proven.  The  books  have  no  souls  that 
may  be  damaged — their  readers  have:  wherefore,  this 
committee  feel  that  there  is  no  excuse  for  the  retaining 
of  a  mischievous  (which  is  also  usually  a  much  read) 
book,  in  order  that  the  total  of  volumes  and  the  total  of 


42 

circulation  shall  show  by  their  aggregates  how  "success- 
ful" is  the  institution  under  their  care. 

One  cannot,  it  has  been  sagely  said,  "  take  fire  into  his 
bosom  and  not  be  burned."     Now,  it  is  the  spirit  of  judg- 
ment and  of  sacrifice  that  thtf  times  call  for — when  men  shall 
be  willing  to  "  come  out,  be  scj)arate,  and  touch  not  the 
unclean  thing,"  and  when  there  shall  be  a  readine&s  mani- 
fested to  do,  in  effect,  as  did  the  convinced  ones  at  Ephesus 
among  whom  "  the  word  of  God  grew  mightily  and  prevail- 
ed," in  making  an  end  by  fire  of  their  '*  curious"  and  enter- 
taining, but  soul -destroying  books.    Or,  as  did  at  a  later  day 
those  Florentines  whom  thes'jixrehing  testimony  of  Savona- 
rola pricked  to  the  heart,  and  who  in  the  great  plaza  of  their 
beautiful  city,  burnt  in  one  vast  heap  the  pernicious  books 
and  all  the  other  wretched  trash  which  thev  were  conscious 
had  been  instrumental    in  keeping  them  awav  from  their 
God. 


r*" 


i'J 


^t 


Note  to  New  P:i)ition,— An  oliservant  Englishman,  now  in  the 
United  States,  having  read  this  Essjiy  on  Printe<i  Poison,  gave  it  as  his 
opinion,  that  although  much  that  is  said  herein  as  to  the  prevalence 
of  the  pernicious  in  print,  is  applicable  to  his  own  land,  yet  there  is 
also  to  be  found  at  railroad  stations,  and  many  other  public  places  (much 
more,  he  thought,  than  there  is  here)  an  abundance  of  low-priced  moral 
and  improving  literature,  issuei!  by  the  Religious  Tract  and  other 
Societies.  Works  of  this  character,  cheap,  yet  goo<l,  in  the  shape  of 
single  sheets,  i>amphlets  and  paper-covered  books,  are  the  available 
substitutes  for  and  correctives  of  the  trash v  and  immoral. 


